Trade balance is considered to be the difference between the value of goods and services that a country exports, and the value of imports. Of course, bearing in mind “country”, one should consider that it doesn't always relate to one country, but may sometimes be related to a geographic area (examples may be the euro area, EU, ASEAN or maybe others).
A trade balance is considered positive when the level of exports exceeds the level of imports - that is, when the country has a trade surplus. A trade deficit occurs in the opposite situation, when a country exports less than it imports. This time the trade balance is considered negative.
One should bear in mind that the “positive”/”negative” terms have only numeric meaning, and should not necessarily be considered as the country’s economic performance. Deficit may occasionally increase when a country is performing well economically, due to the fact that the financial situation of individuals increases and they will want to purchase more foreign products. Also, companies tend to import more raw materials to increase production when the economic situation is improving. The information from the trade balance data can be quite useful for analysing trade policy and product competition among countries.
Periodicity of publication
Eurostat publishes the trade balance figures close to 50 days after the reference period.